Experimental Investigation on Electromagnetic Scattering of Hypersonic Sphere and Ionized Wake

The paper presents RCS results at X band and Ka waveband radar system of steel sphere models with 10 mm diameter and aluminium sphere models with 10 mm diameter and 15 mm diameter. The model velocities exceed 5 km/s, and the experiment pressure range is 3173 Pa to 11219 Pa. The electromagnetic scattering properties of hypersonic spheres and wakes at X waveband monostatic mode and Ka waveband bistatic mode are obtained. The results present that the RCS of non- ablation sphere models and ablation sphere models is larger than the RCS of their ionized wakes, and the sphere models signals at X waveband radar are easily separated from their ionized wakes, and measured wake signals at X waveband radar are easily distinguished from background.